Margaret made a threat. Keep quiet or we will make it a national requirement to teach "creationism" and not "evolution."

We did public school and then moved to private school. We were told that if we could do a better job, then we should. And we do. We homeschool. In public school, we were part of the 'no child left behind' program. We sent our child to Kindergarten knowing the alphabet and how to count. The school started off with a letter a week & a number a week. And then slowed down to teach the non-English speaking children English. My child, with several others, was given extra busy work with no extra guidance. My child wasn't a genius. She was just your average kid whose parents spent some time with them. We put up with this for two years. So, while you are coming up with bright ideas like "No child left behind", how about "No child shoved aside with busy work" or "No teacher bogged down with inane paperwork".
How about more teachers than can work with through the language barrier or intelligence barrier? We were told by several teachers and the administration that they were required to bring children who were struggling up to par. And that didn't leave time for the kids who were doing okay or better than okay. Stop undercutting the education budget. Stop making ridiculous amounts of paperwork and let people teach. Supply the schools with enough teachers to actually get the job done.

Good for you Melinda. Folks out in the country do not have the problems that you city folks have. I notice that the "non English speakers" slowed things down. We don't want to separate the non English speaker minorities from the rest of the students because that might lower their self esteem. You know in a socialist system we can not be better then the weakest link, so your child just has to make the self sacrifice for the minorities. When they all graduate, your child will go to the back of the line on the job list because with affirmative action, the Hispanic immigrant goes to the front of the line because he is Hispanic, regardless of the fact that your child was born here and the Hispanic was not. Stop your complaining. Welcome to mediocrite.

The similarities between NCLB and the Iraq situation are indeed striking. In both cases, the government is not telling the truth. The US Dept of Education keeps claiming children are reading better thanks to NCLB, but the data doesn’t support it.
The Time article noted that there were gains between 1999 and 2004 on a national reading test, but pointed out that most of the gains occurred before No Child Left Behind (NCLB) went into effect. Thus, contrary to statements from the US Department of Education, NCLB does not deserve the credit for these gains. NCLB also promised to close the gap between children from low- and high-income groups, but so far this has not happened. This gap was the same in 2005 as it was in 2003. (NCLB went into effect in 2002-2003).
The Dept of Education recently claimed that there was an increase in reading test scores between 2004 to 2006 for children in Reading First, a central component of NCLB. But a close look showed that the gains were significantly smaller than claimed, and some states did poorly, despite an extra 100 minutes of instruction per week, about an extra semester over two years. Also the Department of Education violated a fundamental scientific principle: There was no comparison group. Even the modest increase could have been due to factors other than Reading First.

There is no clear evidence that NCLB is working.

NCLB does not deserve the credit for gains:
1. “The 16th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education,” by Gerald W. Bracey, published in the October 2006 Phi Delta Kappan.
2. “Selling NCLB: Would You Buy a Used Law From This Woman?,” by James Crawford, available at www.elladvocates.org/nclb/spellings2.html.
3. “Is the No Child Left Behind Act Working? The Reliability of How States Track Achievement,” by Bruce Fuller, Kathryn Gesicki, Erin Kang, and Joseph Wright, published in 2006 by Policy Analysis for California Education, at the University of California, Berkeley.
4. “Did Reading First Work?,” by Stephen Krashen, available at www.districtadministration.com/pulse.
6. “Tracking Achievement Gaps and Assessing the Impact of NCLB on the Gaps: An In-Depth Look Into National and State Reading and Math Outcome Trends,” by Jaekyung Lee, published in 2006 by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.

A close look ….:
“Reading First: ‘Impressive Gains’?” by Stephen Krashen http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=18974

I thought Clinton fixed the public education system...

"When 40 percent of our 8-year-olds cannot read as well as they should," Clinton has said, "we have to do something. I want to send 30,000 reading specialists and National Service Corps members to mobilize a volunteer army of 1 million reading tutors for third-graders all across America."
Bill Clinton - 1996

"Clinton's proposal shows a keen understanding of electoral politics -- teachers unions are among his strongest supporters -- but basic ignorance of problems facing American education..."

Come on folks.
Democrat made programs have failed as miserably as Republican made plans.

Stop deceiving yourselves with partisan blinders.

Having taught in a university for 36 years, I think there is only one answer to the problem. Turn off the stinking TV and read!